No way luck falls to us at 10. He's a number one pick if he comes out.

Well when I wrote this I didn't realize Luck was the most coveted QB and rumor was he would be the #1 draft pick most likely. I did mention I don't follow college ball as much as others.

But watching the game last night left me not as excited about him as I was before last nights game. He (to me) just looked sloppy and inactivate for the first two quarters. I guess there would have to more of looking at his overall season and play which I didn't watch.

Figurehead for Shanahan, not Snyder, first of all. Let Shanahan control everything in fact, while Allen holds the title of the big man. Even if Shanahan is not totally calling all of the GM's shots, it's not like coaches haven't been able to push GMs for a certain player; Gibbs pushed for Desmond Howard, and Casserly accommodated to Gibbs.

Allen does the money/contracts while he lets the HC draw up the draft board, etc. Gruden did the real picking in Tampa, and he wasn't even in the FO per se. The contracts we gave out this offseason are indeed much shrewder and lets us off the hook easily if they stunk it up. No Brandon Lloyd silliness, which was a trademark of the past regime.

Besides, even if we want to appeal to history and interpret history such that Allen was calling the shots in Tampa in terms of personnel, history says that Allen keeps picks as well, since Tampa almost always had a full load of them.

Shanahan also held onto his picks often, but he does seem to do some craftier wheeling and dealing along with it. So, in conclusion, just throwing away draft picks willy-nilly seems out of character for either Shanahan or Allen, for the most part. Neither of them made trades for an old vet starting QB either.

So I believe that Shanahan wanted a QB, and he deemed McNabb the best fit.

Why?

Because I doubt Shanahan would have accepted this job without having significant input in personnel, since I'm sure that he himself believes that he can evaluate talent well enough to pick the players he wants. He had 9 years of said experience before we hired him. He thought McNabb had what he wanted out of a QB: big arm, mobility to extend plays, and was a gamer. Afterwards, of course, buyers' remorse surely set in and he was dissatisfied with McNabb.

Not only that, some of the players brought seem to be perfect Shanahan "fits". Grossman, Torain, Beck, Trent Williams, Armstrong, Lichtensteiger all easily bear the stamp of "Shanahan approved" players because they fit what he wants on offense.

Getting rid of Jason Campbell was also Shanahan-driven since he himself said he was going to watch every snap of his career to determine if JC had what he wanted. If he had that much power to get rid of JC, pick up Grossman, pick up Beck, why the hell is he suddenly doesn't have any power with regards to McNabb?

Are you still talking about who has what? Last time I checked, Allen is the GM and any deals he makes must be given the OK by Shanahan. So if you want to consider that as a clue of who is in charged. then you are correct.

The Panthers have many needs like we do.
But unlike us they have a Jimmy Clausen.
Since they have so many holes to fill I'd not be surprised if they draft defense #1 and go with Clausen.

The Panthers passing on Luck because they have Jimmy Clausen would have been like the Colts passing on Manning had they drafted Jake Plummer in the year before. They will cut their losses in a heartbeat to draft Luck.

__________________"It's nice to be important, but its more important to be nice."- Scooter

"I feel like Dirtbag has been slowly and methodically trolling the board for a month or so now."
- FRPLG